Ken Loach's 1996 film Carla's Song marks the first of his many collaborations with lawyer and screenwriter Paul Laverty, and concerns the fallout from the Contra War in Nicaragua. Many of the pairs subsequent films would be marred by mawkish sentimentality, but their first work together is a powerful and dramatic study of a conflict rarely explored in Western cinema and it remains one of their best.
Carla's Song stars Robert Carlyle as George Lennox, a Scottish bus driver who befriends Oyanka Cabezas's Nicaraguan refugee Carla and ultimately takes her back to Nicaragua so that she can discover what happened to her boyfriend Antonio. It's part love story, although in that sense it doesn't unfold along the lines one might expect: ultimately, George makes the difficult decision to reunite Carla with her true love, even though he loses her as a result. Carlyle - who learned to drive a bus for the role of George - gives a typically assured and charismatic performance and establishes convincing on-screen chemistry with unknown actress Cabezas who is equally convincing as Carla. Despite her relative lack of acting experience, Cabezas conveys a wide emotional range very naturalistically, which the script demands in spades.
Laverty's screenplay includes powerful themes such as Carla's attempted suicide and the horrors of the war in Nicaragua, achieving the latter by focusing on the civilian cost. The scene of the bloody casualties in the hospital when George and Carla give blood is shot with stark simplicity in the docu-drama style that Loach occasionally favours, whilst his regular cinematographer Barry Ackroyd makes great use of the location filming, especially in the latter half of the film, depicting Nicaragua as a beautiful country torn apart by conflict. When Carla recalls past violence, grainy colour-desaturated film stock is used to striking visual effect.
The characterisation of the two leads is exemplary; it's would be hard for the audience not to empathise with either of them. George's big-hearted, rebellious bus driver gives everything to the traumatised Carla and then graciously steps away at the end to provide her with what she really wants, as she elects to stay with the scarred, mutilated Antonio. He's also written as a fully rounded character rather than a two-dimensional local hero; his eventual decision he can't cope with the killing (which he albeit overcomes when he thinks Carla is in danger) is very realistic.
Whilst the film cast is fleshed out by local non-professional actors, adding authenticity (a trick that Loach also used in 'Land and Freedom'), the relatively high profile Carlyle is joined by Gary Lewis as George's likeable flatmate Sammy, and Scott Glenn as Bradley. Glen's cantankerous but well-meaning character is memorably eccentric, and he's great during Bradley's furious rant about CIA involvement in Nicaragua has real anger to it - it ultimately transpires that he used to work for the CIA, suggesting that guilt motivates his desire to help the people of Nicaragua.
Loach directs with his characteristic skill, and the film benefits from one of George Fenton's better soundtracks for the director, which underscores the film without being intrusive, which is not always the case. The only flaw - and a sign of a tendency that would undermine Laverty's later scripts - is that the officious ticket inspector is a typical one-dimensional bureaucratic Laverty antagonist. But he's only in it for a couple of minutes, and it isn't enough to detract from the fact that Carla's Song is one of Loach's best films, and one of his most fruitful collaborations with Laverty.
Carla's Song stars Robert Carlyle as George Lennox, a Scottish bus driver who befriends Oyanka Cabezas's Nicaraguan refugee Carla and ultimately takes her back to Nicaragua so that she can discover what happened to her boyfriend Antonio. It's part love story, although in that sense it doesn't unfold along the lines one might expect: ultimately, George makes the difficult decision to reunite Carla with her true love, even though he loses her as a result. Carlyle - who learned to drive a bus for the role of George - gives a typically assured and charismatic performance and establishes convincing on-screen chemistry with unknown actress Cabezas who is equally convincing as Carla. Despite her relative lack of acting experience, Cabezas conveys a wide emotional range very naturalistically, which the script demands in spades.
Laverty's screenplay includes powerful themes such as Carla's attempted suicide and the horrors of the war in Nicaragua, achieving the latter by focusing on the civilian cost. The scene of the bloody casualties in the hospital when George and Carla give blood is shot with stark simplicity in the docu-drama style that Loach occasionally favours, whilst his regular cinematographer Barry Ackroyd makes great use of the location filming, especially in the latter half of the film, depicting Nicaragua as a beautiful country torn apart by conflict. When Carla recalls past violence, grainy colour-desaturated film stock is used to striking visual effect.
The characterisation of the two leads is exemplary; it's would be hard for the audience not to empathise with either of them. George's big-hearted, rebellious bus driver gives everything to the traumatised Carla and then graciously steps away at the end to provide her with what she really wants, as she elects to stay with the scarred, mutilated Antonio. He's also written as a fully rounded character rather than a two-dimensional local hero; his eventual decision he can't cope with the killing (which he albeit overcomes when he thinks Carla is in danger) is very realistic.
Whilst the film cast is fleshed out by local non-professional actors, adding authenticity (a trick that Loach also used in 'Land and Freedom'), the relatively high profile Carlyle is joined by Gary Lewis as George's likeable flatmate Sammy, and Scott Glenn as Bradley. Glen's cantankerous but well-meaning character is memorably eccentric, and he's great during Bradley's furious rant about CIA involvement in Nicaragua has real anger to it - it ultimately transpires that he used to work for the CIA, suggesting that guilt motivates his desire to help the people of Nicaragua.
Loach directs with his characteristic skill, and the film benefits from one of George Fenton's better soundtracks for the director, which underscores the film without being intrusive, which is not always the case. The only flaw - and a sign of a tendency that would undermine Laverty's later scripts - is that the officious ticket inspector is a typical one-dimensional bureaucratic Laverty antagonist. But he's only in it for a couple of minutes, and it isn't enough to detract from the fact that Carla's Song is one of Loach's best films, and one of his most fruitful collaborations with Laverty.